The present invention relates to an improvement in a terminal crimping apparatus for crimping terminals automatically and consecutively to the ends of electric wires.
A typical known terminal crimping apparatus has a pressing punch attached to the lower end of a press ram and an anvil disposed below the press ram. In operation, electric wires and terminals are supplied consecutively onto the anvil and the pressing punch is repeatedly driven downwardly thereby to automatically and consecutively crimp the terminals to the ends of the electric wires. This known crimping apparatus, however, suffers from the following disadvantage. In most cases, the diameter of the electric wire, as well as the size and shape of the terminal, varies depending on the uses, so that the crimp height, i.e., the height of the terminal crimped on the electric wire from the surface of the anvil, varies widely. The known crimping apparatus of the type explained before, however, is intended for the crimping of the terminals of an equal size and shape to electric wires of a given diameter. Namely, it is necessary to take trouble of accurately measuring the final crimp height and precisely adjusting the lower stroke end of the pressing punch, in the preparatory step each time the diameter of the electric wire is changed.
In consequence, the man-hour in the preparatory step is increased undesirably.
In the modern automatic system, a series of operation including cutting of electric wire, stripping, twisting of the stripped conductor and crimping of a terminal, is conducted by a continuous line. Such an automatic system is often required to cope with a demand for a large-lot and small-quantity production. With the known crimping apparatus of the type described, it is quite difficult to cope with such a demand.